Quest to Slay the Serpent
by Deej1
Summary: Continues from my first Dungeons and Dragons movie fic. Ridley and friends must stop an evil Serpent cult from taking Parthax. *unfinished*
1. Arrival in Parthax

Author's Note: 

This continues on from my other Dungeons and Dragons Movie fic, the Dragon Breath Quest, so you might want to read that first.

As always I do not own the Dungeon's and Dragons movie, characters etc. Also, these few chapters I've uploaded are all I currently have and as I'm working on one of my other fics (An Amazon in Space), you may not see more of it for a while. Great encouragement in the review section might help though (hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink).

Parthax... the city of science, was considered one of the greatest cities in its part of the world. The wide streets were always noisy and overcrowded with visitors and the buildings rose higher than most. It was considered a feast of oddities and amusements for every race.

There were many types here, but a few stuck out more than the others. Firstly, the mages and inventors, striding through the streets in their hooded cloaks as though they were heading towards some momentous, life-changing purpose. There were the street sellers, their carts scattered across the streets and overflowing with the strangest artifacts ever seen. They were loud, and bright, and cheery, full of dramatic arm movements and large smiles, and they were crooked. The last group were the servants – they were the ones that walked the streets with their heads bowed. Their walking style ranged from a slow shuffle to a speedy scurry.

The city itself was not dark and foreboding, but possibly the brightest imaginable. Strange ticking gadgets with no apparent purpose were attached to the buildings. In fact, most of the buildings, their shapes and designs, were so odd and misplaced that the city appeared as a giant cluster of individual buildings thrown together. There were tall pointed towers, round circular temples and square blocks in an odd shape that made one wonder how it even stood. Every mage appeared to have a different idea of what constituted as an efficient building design.

On the streets, strange beasts were being handled by short goblins and dwarves. The markets were open and the villagers and peasant folk were making their daily trek from the slums and farms on the city outskirts. Amongst them was a small group of travelers. The five of them were riding – two humans, one brown haired, the other dark skinned and lean, alongside them rode a human female in mage robes and behind was a rather oversized, unkempt dwarf contrasted with the pristine but watchful elvan woman at the rear.

"This must be Parthax," said the human woman, partly in awe, whose name was Marina. Her companions silently echoed their agreements. Certainly, the city they'd fallen across, directed to by their imp friend Jez, was not nearly as magnificent as Sumdall, their home town. But, compared to the town in the South the travelers had recently arrived from, Parthax was nothing to be laughed at.

Unlike Sumdall, the designer's of Parthax must surely have worked on the theory of 'the brighter the better', their favourite colours tending towards light blues and oranges, often with gold trimmings. Many of the buildings rose up as spectacular feats of design, like swans rising from a flock of birds that were the plainer, slum-like houses occasionally dotting the landscape. It was certainly enough to awe the average traveler.

"Oh man," Snails, the dark skinned human, immediately complained, though eager to begin his pillaging of local pockets, "we could spend weeks here trying to find a way home."

The elf, Norda added more calmly, "At least we know we are more likely to find a mage who may help us, in such a large city."

"Where's the local tavern?" their bulky dwarf friend Elwood growled, adding his own two cents. The quicker the ale found his throat, the better. At the exact same instant, the dwarf caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and growled again.

"Not the best way to get friendly with the natives," Ridley, the other human male, suggested, referring to Elwood's glare and the sound that accompanied it. But the dwarf ignored him and continued to flit his eyes across the Parthaxian crowd, searching for whatever had set him off in the first place.

"I thought I saw one o' them snake creatures," he told the thief, his bushy dwarven eyebrows furrowing into a massive monobrow.

"Not again. That would have to be the third time this week!" Marina spoke of the fourteen days it had taken them to ride to Parthax. Already such creatures, whom the group had previously linked with the vile imp Empress Lauthal, had attacked their party at least twice. It appeared there was more than one such horrendous creature, and they could not figure out why their party had become a target.

"You must have been seeing things," Marina suggested, not too tactfully, when the crowd continued by as though normal, leaving only the riding party stalled on the outskirt streets of Parthax. She took the reigns of her horse and flicked them to urge the creature forward.

As she did so, there was a dark growl at the creature's legs and the animal reared up, whinnying in fright and forcing Marina to hold onto the reigns for fear of falling off. A small heavily cloaked person standing at the horse's feet suddenly drew away its cloak and rose up, as it went, unfolding its snake-like body that had been creased down upon itself.

"They're getting sneakier," Norda acknowledged, and suddenly the entire group was surrounded by an entire flock of the horrendous, hissing creatures. Half human – half snake, possessing a quick intelligence and deadly combat skills. Their eyes were reptilian, their heads bald and their noses and ears squashed down to nearly holes. The snake creatures also held scaly bodies, mouths with no lips and, strangely, horrible large claws instead of hands. Perhaps they could almost be part lizard, but something was too slyly snakish about them for that comparison.

Fortunately the adventurers knew the snake people's weak spot – their front sides were strong and scaly, but their backs were softer and less protected. All one needed was to maneuver oneself behind the creatures. However this usually proved more difficult than one would have thought.

Ridley, Norda and Elwood drew their weapons as Marina gained control of her horse and a pained look crossed the face of the thief Snails. They were surrounded by about seven of the monsters, and not one member of Parthax's crowd had stopped to give the scene a second glance.

"What do you want with us?" Marina asked in partial distress, though still with a hint of inner strength. But the only reply she received was for a creature to leap, snarling, at her horse. The horse whinnied again and backed up, the rest of the creatures flinging themselves at the group.

Elwood immediately swung his great battle-axe at the rear of the group, beheading one of the monsters in the process. Two more began to ravage the sides of his horse.

Norda, ahead on the dwarf's right, fended off another with her sword whilst yet another attempted to climb up on the rear of Snails' horse to the left. The horse, startled, darted forward nearly crashing into Marina's own as it was backing up. Ridley was ignoring the creature pursuing himself in an attempt to cut off the one attacking Marina, sword in his hand. He cut forward into the thing's back only to feel the painful raking claws of the other tear into his thigh. Marina shrieked and used her magic to send a force of air knocking the snake creature after Ridley backwards. It crashed into the crowds, sending several people sprawling, and immediately leapt back to its feet.

Norda had dispatched of her own assailant and was attempting to help Elwood as Snails, knife in hand, tried desperately to turn in his saddle and face his own attacker face on.

Before he could, the monster was suddenly sprouting two of Norda's arrows, curtesy of Marina's levitation spell. Elwood dismembered another simultaneously and it fell back writhing into the cobbled street.

The last two monsters, suddenly realising how terribly outnumbered they were – one caught between Norda and Elwood, the other about to be engaged in battle by an encroaching Ridley, suddenly decided the fight wasn't worth it and hissing, they melted back away into the crowd as quickly as possible.

The onlookers continued on as though nothing had happened.

"What kind of city is this!" Marina exclaimed in shock. How could anybody just ignore such an attack in the street?! She was horrified that any place could be like this and was immediately homesick for Sumdall. Suddenly those tall, sparkling buildings did not seem so impressive.

Ridley and Snails, and perhaps even Elwood, all of whom had lived and endured the slum life of Sumdall, were less horrified by the incidence. Unlike Marina, they knew such occurrances were not often unusual in their home town also.

Before they could resume their travel, through the crowd stepped a tall man holding a large bagful of rolled scrolls to stand before the group, and in particular, Marina.

"Aaaah, Magess," he addressed the mage through his thick brown beard, and bowed his head quickly, "Might I congratulate you on your most noble effort I just witnessed. You appear new in Parthax, so it would be my most honoured position to direct you to the Meeting of the Mage, of which I assume you have traveled far to see. As always, it is held within our clear city's town hall." He waved a hand behind him and towards a large impressive cream dome in the distance with a bronze spire rising from its tip. Bronze gargoyles also ringed the dome's lower edge.

"The meeting of the mages," Marina began to ask as she watched the dome, then realised the bearded fellow had already disappeared back into the crowd.

"If anywhere is likely to provide us with answers," Norda commented, "then it is there." Marina nodded thoughtful, and was just about to move her horse forward towards the building of the town hall, when Ridley spoke up painedly from nearby.

"Uh, a little help here guys?" He was clutching at his leg, which was bleeding, where the snake creature had inflicted its damage.


	2. The Debate

The town hall was just as intriguing as it had promised to be. Great white steps lead up to its enormous gold double doors, which had small cherubs moulded onto its surface. The cherubs moved magically, flitting across the doors surface. Great columns, also gold, supported the building and were decorated similarly to the doors but with leaves instead of cherubs. These leaves, true to real foliage, moved gently with the breeze.

Around the entrance stood a number of guards in a uniform that was the same design for each, but a completely individual colour for every soldier. They stood so still, one almost thought they might be statues, if it weren't for the fact that occasionally one would bar someone from entering the dome.

Most of those turned away without so much as blinking, but one particularly wiry looking goblin did become overexcited, screeching and throwing himself at the soldiers. They merely lifted him up as though he were of feather weight and launched him over the chairs and onto the street.

"Maybe non-mages aren't allowed in," Snails commented nervously, partly because he didn't really fancy being in a room with all those magic wielding fanatics. Had it been Sumdall, the group would have known for certain that any minus the abilities of magic would have been less welcome than rodents.

But physical harm by the guards appeared to be only a last resort, so the travelers were willing to at least try. If nothing else, Marina, and probably Norda should be able to attend the Meeting of the Mages and the rest could wait outside.

They headed towards the doors, but were mystified to discover that not one of them was stopped from entering. If it had nothing to do with magical abilities, why were some turned away and others not?

Inside, the town hall was rather like a museum of odd artifacts. The corridor towards the main hall was actually a series of connected rooms and these were now filled with the same sorts of imaginative things that decorated the streets. Strange metal structures, glowing paintings of strange metal structures, a collection of enchanted objects ranging from the more usual (medallions) to the bizarre (a bedpan), things that made clicking and ticking noises, some bizarre and hideous creatures. The group passed an entire section dedicated to herbs and wildlife, where one half of the room was much like a garden, the other side jungle-like.

Finally the five of them arrived in a large round auditorium. Chairs were seated in a three quarter circle and were quite full of all kinds in mage robes so that only a few chairs at the very back were free. At the far end of the theatre, on the stage, two podiums were erected each with a middle-aged mage standing behind. The one on the left was wearing bright red robes whilst the one on the right was in a softer blue. A third mage, in neutral robes, was standing to the right on the very edge of the stage and watching the other two very closely.

"...the very idea is ludicrous," the mage in the red argued, ending a sentence, as the traveling group crept in and seated themselves uncertainly in the empty back row.

The man in red leaned across his podium and continued, "The intricate system of magic has been well established for hundreds of years. We _know_ it is acquired in one of two ways – one can learn it, if one has the mental capacity, thus mages and wizards. Or it can be bred – one can be born with magical abilities, thus sorcerers. What you are suggesting goes against countless years of studies by countless mages. There is **no** third way." He addressed his last statements to the man beside him in blue robes.

"Not at all, 


	3. Meeting of the Mages

The next debate, unfortunately, was much longer than the first. It appeared that this time, both sides had fairly good, acceptable arguments that were so well received that the result was an almost tie. But considering the debate was over the correct interpretation of the Sixth Book of Aidenn, second edition, very few of the traveling group were even the least bit interested. It might have helped some if they'd ever heard of Aidenn and his philosophical exploits.

Snails found himself rudely awakened, however, when it did finally end, as Marina leapt up in an effort to catch the mage. Norda had the composure to rise more slowly, fluidly. Before they caught the mage though, a red cloak suddenly swished into place at the end of Maecyn's row, blocking him from leaving and attracting the attention of the mage. It was Arkyn.

"Aah, it was a good debate," Arkyn addressed Maecyn, his opponent earlier, with a slimy smile, "a good debate Maecyn. I'm dreadfully sorry, of course, for the result - not that the best man didn't win," his smile broadened, "but I'm horrified that such a revered Mage could be snubbed so in a Meeting, even after that last performance...." 

Maecyn's face flushed red with irritation, "You can gloat elsewhere Arkyn." Arkyn feigned a shocked, hurt look.

"Well, what a suggestion! If you're going to be rude." He looked up as though he'd just been done some great indignity, but his eyes flashed wickedly as he turned and made his way back down the aisle.

"You won't get anyone to help you that way," Arkyn's voice floated back towards them half mockingly. 

Marina looked after him with some distaste, "What a perfectly detestable man." At least she'd seen through the red cloaked Mage, her travels must have been having some affect on her after all.

"Yes," Maecyn agreed, turning towards them as he was reminded the group was there, "I'm afraid I rise too easily to the occasion when he baits me," he sighed, "but please, you wished to speak of my theories."

"Yes, I too, am interested," Norda spoke, coming to stand next to Marina and the Mage. Maecyn looked surprised at the sight of an elf, which was strange because she was not the only one in the room. Snails yawned, attracting their attention. Marina and Norda, Marina in particular, looked a little miffed at this.

"Of course!" Maecyn exclaimed, "It is late, and you look new in town. I will invite you as guests to my home! All my research and calculations are there also, which I would be delighted to share with you."

"Oh we couldn't possibly..." Marina began, then realised that not only was everyone looking at her as though she was mad, but that they were right - a place to spend the night that would not indent their pockets, "That would be lovely."

Maecyn smiled warmly, "This way." He began leading them back through the town hall rooms.

"Ooheee," Snails commented excitedly from the rear, "a _Mage's_ house. That's gotta be full of lots of interesting.... old.... expensive things!"

"Yeah, none of which is ours. Just don't go taking anything," Ridley warned quietly, next to him, and Snails frowned.

"Oh why'd you always have to go and ruin everyone else's fun," the thief muttered irritatedly to himself, but apparently was still loud enough to turn Ridley's head and earn him a pair of raised eyebrows.


End file.
